A lot has changed during the past month.
At the beginning of March, the Agromeck staff was facing our fourth deadline. After weeks of working on the deadline, I felt frustrated when our leadership staff didn’t get to leave the office till past 10 p.m. on our submission deadline night. While I felt accomplished that we had completed and submitted another deadline of good work, I felt ashamed that I hadn’t planned my time out well enough to be able to let my leadership staff go home earlier. I remember itching to leave the office so I could breeze through the rest of the week into spring break. Little did I know that it would be my book’s last deadline in the office surrounded by my leadership staff and dear friends.
When news broke that spring break would be extended and that our classes would be moved online, the first thing I thought of was the Agromeck — How could we work away from the office? What would we cover for the rest of the year? How would the different event cancellations affect students’ NC State experience? — I panicked.
While we are still in a very bizarre time, over the past couple of weeks, Agromeck’s steps forward have become clearer. While many aspects of the way Agromeck is operating under COVID-19 are not optimal, I am confident and excited to continue working to complete this year’s book. Even though we can’t go into the office between classes anymore, I still look forward to talking to staff — now via video calls and emails — and appreciate the ideas we bounce off each other.
With our next deadline coming up, I am excited to cover the current situation the NC State community is in and how students are impacted. While we may have to be a bit more creative to cover the different aspects of the situation, our staff is determined to continue the book in a way that ties back to this book’s theme of Perspectives.
As this is such a unique time in our history, I hope to cover COVID-19 in an appropriate way that reveals the perspectives of students and how the pandemic is impacting them. Since students are missing out on a part of their NC State experience, especially seniors, I hope that this year’s Agromeck will serve as a time-capsule for them. So that down the road, they can reflect on the parts of the school year we had together on campus and this unique time we share off of campus.
